Medium: Scrapped: The Naval Parade That Brings Military, Civilians, Together

My article on the cancellation of San Francisco’s Fleet Week 2013 and the growing military-civilian divide.

Alameda Naval Air Station and the Concord Naval Weapons Station were located in the East Bay. Slightly farther afield was Hamilton Air Force base and Mare Island Shipyard. San Francisco itself had no less than four bases: Fort Mason, the Presidio, Treasure Island and Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard. The Bay Area was even a nuclear power, with nuclear-tipped missiles deployed in a vast network to protect the population against Soviet bombers.

All of these bases have closed. One by one they folded, relics of the Cold War and shuttered during the base cutbacks of the 1990s. The only military bases left in the Bay Area today are National Guard armories and reservist bases, scattered here and there at places like Camp Parks and Moffett Field. (Link)